One Step Further Along

A Path Of Public Communication

To the Editor:

This is a public thank you to Caren Wellman for her initiative in putting together the first Budget Forum, held last evening at the Newtown Municipal Center. The question/answer format was well organized and the League of Women Voters moderator was effective and efficient. The event affirmed my conviction that citizens need and value more and different opportunities to solicit information and answers from elected officials. Although each of the boards represented at the Forum has agenda-based public comment, there is an absence in those settings of responses to public comment questions. This is not to suggest that government agencies use formal meeting time to engage in a dialogue with citizens, but that we recognize and act on the need for multiple and diverse communication approaches. This is a tall order for volunteer boards and for staff that are already fully engaged in their work! The need is real, but the solutions are hard to come by.  So, thank you, Caren, for taking us one step further on that communications pathway.

E. Patricia Llodra

First Selectman

90 Riverside Road, Sandy Hook                                                                      September 29, 2010